Violist Isaac Chalk has been named the 2011-2012 recipient of the Schulich School of Music’s coveted Golden Violin Award. Chalk becomes the sixth winner of the $20,000 award, the largest of its kind for a music student in Canada. The Golden Violin is presented annually to an outstanding McGill string player who is close to completing studies and has demonstrated the potential for a highly successful performing career.

It has the ring of a Robert Ludlum title: The Manfredi Process. Dean of Arts Christopher Manfredi has been handed the task of overseeing a process of consultation – in effect conducting a big conversation in which members of the McGill community can share their views on what is tolerable or appropriate when it comes to peaceful assembly and the expression of dissent or opinion on campus.

By Jim Hynes As of Tuesday, March 13, the page that’s been greeting visitors to the McGill website for the past five and a half years will have not only a whole new look, but also a new, more efficient way of guiding people to the mass of content that lies beyond it. The McGill […]

By Gary Francoeur Rising food prices, recurring floods and droughts, and a growing demand for shrinking resources have pushed millions of people into hunger and poverty. According to the United Nations, there are now nearly one billion undernourished people globally – which means that one in seven go hungry each day. Now, thanks to a […]

Have you ever asked yourself: how can I make a difference as a manager at McGill? Well, the answer is Management Forum. ‘MForum’ is designed to encourage the exchange of ideas among the 1600 plus managers at McGill. By providing an informal channel of communication between managers and senior administration, it aims to promote the University’s values, objectives and priorities. It also serves to enhance managers’ effectiveness through organizational development. This is what MForum has been doing in the last few years. Read more »

A funny thing happened on our way to the special Love issue of the McGill Reporter we had planned for February 9, just prior to Valentine’s Day. We got preoccupied – or occupied, if you will – by last week’s shutdown of the James Administration Building by student protesters (see the front page for the full story). Without access to our offices, the issue had to be postponed by a week and, as a result, some of the love stories we had prepared got bumped to make room for coverage of last week’s events. But love’s labour has not been totally lost. Instead of a whole issue dedicated to affairs of the heart, we decided to spread the love around.

Nobody at McGill spends more time unravelling the mysteries of love and relationships than Professor John Lydon. A native of New York City who came to McGill’s Psychology department in 1990, Lydon is a world-renowned expert on attraction and commitment in intimate interpersonal relationships. One of his most recent studies looked at male-female attraction, and the impact of attachment anxiety in it, in the context of speed dating. And another of his previous studies examined the role of commitment in overcoming relationship adversities.

It’s got a good rep, and a great nickname – the “love hormone.” Oxytocin helps women give birth and breastfeed. At orgasm, both men and women release it. And lots of scientific evidence suggests that it plays some role in bonding and attachment in everything from prairie voles to humans. So when researchers started paying serious attention to the role of oxytocin in human social behavior, there were those who hoped that, because it also seems to increase our trust in one another, it might become a panacea for a range of social ills.

Meaghan Dustin and André Mayrand of the McGill Jack and Jill team work the Swede Saw (and WD40) at the 52nd annual Woodsmen Competition at Macdonald Campus Jan. 28. Nova Scotia Agricultural College took top honours in the Men’s division while Sir Sandford Fleming College took the women’s division. The McGill men and women finished fourth and seventh respectively. And…Hockey Redmen take playoff opener vs. Queen’s, volleyball team upsets Laval and qualifies for Nationals.

Aquil Virani’s art is full of unexpected and quirky connection. Converging train tracks plunge into square cows. A milk carton morphs into a whale. That sits beside a church… with cat’s footprints leading towards it. There are stories within stories. And though the connections and convolutions of the images that flow together are Virani’s own, the original drawings which inspired them are all by members of the McGill community.